OpenVPN Support Forum

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:39 am**

Server Config

# Follows is my .ovpn file
;Brand new to OpenVPN. My only (successful) VPN experience was WAY, WAY back when PPTP was considerable marginally acceptable...so.

;The Asus router referenced natively supports use as an OpenVPN server. I followed the advice of a couple of guides to configure the server in the router.

;1) generated the .ovpn file
;2) imported file into the Android OpenVPN client w/o any error message.
;3) hit "connect" on the Android OpenVPN client and get the following error message:

;"Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no start line

;Reviewed the actual .ovpn file to see if I could spot obvious errors in structure. I'm not sure that the certificate is structured correctly, though I don't know what it SHOULD look like.

;I will be grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction. Thank you.

;I checked and found:

remote 75.12.34.56 1194
float
nobind
proto udp
dev tun
sndbuf 0
rcvbuf 0
keepalive 15 60
comp-lzo adaptive
auth-user-pass
client
auth SHA256
cipher AES-256-CBC
ns-cert-type server
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
;Twenty-two (22) ROWS of 64-character A/N strings
;One (1) single, last ROW of a 40-character A/N string
;Strikes me as odd that the LAST ROW of the certificate is only 40 characters long, whereas the preceding 22 rows are each 64-characters long.
-----END CERTIFICATE-----

</ca>

<cert>
paste client certificate data here
</cert>

<key>
paste client key data here
</key>

<tls-auth>
-----BEGIN OpenVPN Static key V1-----
; Sixteen (16) ROWS of 32-character A/N strings
-----END OpenVPN Static key V1-----

</tls-auth>

key-direction 0

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 4:38 pm**

Surely, SOMEONE is up-to-speed on this? Or is this error so arcane as all that?

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 6:21 pm**

https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/IOSinline

Posted: **Tue Mar 05, 2024 7:15 pm**

Thanks. As it turns out, the initial error message disappeared after I began exporting the .ovpn file directly to my TABLET. Maybe there was some corruption of the file in (securely) emailing it to myself and then downloading it to the tablet? No idea. But, from what I could glean from the post to which you linked the key to that person's success was using key-direction 1. For fun, I'll add that line to my file and see what happens, though expectations are low. Was there something else or more fundamental I missed? Easily so, given my lack of expertise.

But, now that I'm no longer getting the original error message, my OpenVPN client complains that my chosen level of security for my certificates is too low. With AES-256-CBC and SHA 512? Don't think so, but my agéd Asus RT-AC56U may be unable to produce an .ovpn file which meets spec for the current OpenVPN client. So, it's back to seeing if that can be sorted. A new router may be in order.

Posted: **Wed Mar 06, 2024 1:27 am**

Problems are normally explained in your server or client log files.

OpenVPN Support Forum

Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no start

Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no start

Re: Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no st

Re: Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no st

Re: Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no st

Re: Asus RT-AC56U Android Client gives: Error message: X509:parse_perm:error in cert::error:0480006C:PEM routines::no st